SPN 5.19 and 5.20

[ladydreamer]

I edited this forever trying to be fair and balanced fan when it came to the latter episode while still analyzing the situation in a way that makes sense to me. So, I tried. Mostly I just divided into awesome and bothersome comments.

5.19

Things that were awesome:

1. Kali. God, she rocked, so so hard. Throughout the episode I was thinking “Noooo awesome female character! Don’t dieee!!”

And she lived!! Gasp!

I liked the Darth Vader move, the fact that she obviously doesn’t care if there are vegetarian gods at the table (we’re having human tonight. deal.), the way she says there will be BLOOD, how she isn’t fooled by Gabriel’s shenanigans, and on and on.

OH, and the speech she gave to Gabriel before she stabbed the fake him. I was cheering.

She must return. MUST.

2. The gods. Ganesh cracked me up. I liked him, and I was sad to seem him get smote. Lucifer ripped through them like tissue paper.

3. Dean eats lemon meringue pie for dinner. The gods know that Dean likes pie.

Come on, Dean! You can eat something more nutritious than that. I also liked that Dean takes care of Sam no matter what. Twice this season he’s noted that he himself DOESN’T sleep without drinking, or much at all, and he sees Sam doing the same thing and makes a move to make sure that Sam is taking care of himself so he won’t get completely burned out, the way Dean did.

Let’s also briefly note (although others have) that Dean let Sam have the bed by the door :)

And that, “No one’s giving up, ESPECIALLY ME.” I’m okay now, I swearz it! I’m not sure he is, but as I ficced, I think he’s trying very hard now.

4. “I made it out of a can of Diet Orange Slice!” Lmao. Gabriel drinks diet sodas. Watching that figure, I see.

Also, canon admission from Dean that his devil may care attitude is total BS. Dean/Gabe bonding FTW

5. “Lucy, I’m home!” I’ve been waiting for someone to call him Lucy in the show. I liked the whole Lucy/Gabe showdown. I don’t care as much that Gabriel died, aside from the fact that he was a good reoccurring character, and they just off those too quickly. I guess this is a symbol of the Apocalypse. Character bloodbath.

6. That whole video that Gabe made for them. He knew that he’d die if he faced down Lucifer, and while I wish that he’d managed to escape somehow, that would have undercut Lucifer’s badassedness in this episode. The clip was like a goodbye, a tip, and a mandate to Dean and Sam all in one, to help them on their quest by giving them the hint they needed at the beginning of the season

7. Dean can St. Crispin’s anyone. Really. He turned Cas to their side with one speech, and he turned Gabriel with two speeches. I want to see more of Dean inspiring folks to Team Free Will. (And then like in my dream, Sam can take the lead of Army Free Will, including the fangirls and boys who have learned how to hunt via the SPN books.)

8. I don’t know if this is a Like or just a Note: Demons and Angels need Vessels to come to the corporeal plane. (I guess Gabe has had that Vessel since way way back, when men were shorter.) GODS can transubstantiate. They can change their form from elephant to man, from many armed goddess to just two arms to appear as what they want.

Things that bothered me:

1. Sam has to tell Dean that he’s twelve twice a season now. It’s in his contract, I think. Or the writers forgot that they used that already this season.

2. I wish Kali had been able to do more against Lucifer. I mean she is KALI. It would have been nice, even if she failed, to see her knock him back a little. I guess they want to point out that NO ONE CAN KILL LUCY.

3. So... no one thought it might be good to go back and grab Gabe’s archangel sword?

4. I find it odd that all of the other gods managed flawless English, but the Asian god doesn’t speak English? Is that because he can’t, or because he feels his language is better than theirs? The latter is okay, the former is just weird. They could have all been speaking Hindi, Norwegian, etc. I mean, they all understood each other right?

5. I have to add that I would have liked to see more from the gods together, because this was an opportunity for Kripke to open up the universe once again and have more involvement from the gods who didn’t die in the war council. Let’s be honest, I read American Gods. This was no Tiger Balls. (Damn, I forgot to read that to [Bad username or unknown identity: ”xenachakrum13”] this afternoon.)

Is Gabriel Anansi and Coyote as well, or just Loki?

6. Coming this late in the season, the momentum behind a quest driven arch like this seems almost wasted. I feel, though, that if it had come before the arch of Dean’s depression/saying yes, then it wouldn’t have made sense for that to happen.

7. Pestilence. I don’t argue that he’s right on and the actor they got for him has a long streak of awesomeness, but that made me GAG. All the horsemen besides War are GROSS.

5.20

Things that were awesome:

1. Crowley in general. I accept that he uses queerness just to be wickedly subversive and disturb everyone, and I like it. The guy made me Lol. Really. He’s clearly self-interested, and the kind of ally you have to keep an eye on, but you can trust, at least, that they will do what is in their best interests, and that much is predictable.

2. Bobby telling Sam that his plan to say yes is crazy in a frypan, and that Sam came up with that plan WHILE DRINKING. I don’t mind him thinking about it, because I thought about it too, but I think if he actually does it, then realistically, we’re in for Lucifer!Sam next season.

3. This:

(from rogueslayer452)

I loled forever at Dean's expression. Old school bickering and snark. What else do you say to “I told you so”? (and then Sam's frownie at Dean in response lol) I think Dean was more annoyed at being locked in the bathroom without Cas than anything else.

4. Strangely, Bobby was a lot less irritating to me in this episode, and I suspect it had to do with 1) drinking and 2) not really talking to Dean much. The margueritas line was good. Although I was telling my computer screen, “You had BETTER get that contract in writing!” in regards to his ‘deal’ with Crowley. Crowley is bound by the terms of the deal they make, as per what we’ve seen so far, so if the deal is that Bobby gets it back, then Crowley has to abide by that, yes? Still, get it in writing. Get it in blood. And have a hunter lawyer look it over.

I’m not sure why Bobby’s soul in particular would be one he wants to nab. But I can see this as one of two things: 1) He’s doing it this way, just like with only taking Dean because he knows that neither of the boys are going to do what he wants in this regard, and he just sees it as the logical way to get things done. Or 2) He’s going to get Bobby’s soul and trade it for something else from the Winchesters. Which he could have done without the rigamarole of the demons and dogs before, but by setting it out that he actually helped the Winchesters, Bobby might be more likely to make the deal?

5. The actor that played Brady. OMG he’s always so good. Why is he still a bit actor? It might have been me, but I read his character as gay, too. Except he’s just disgusted by Crowley in general, and is like “I SO would not be having a passionate affair with this guy. I’m so much better than that.”

Things that bothered me:

1. Trusting Crowley is just like trusting Ruby!!
Only Dean
isn’t being manipulated/having his brain scrambled by an addictive substance
detoxing from said substance
or being convinced that it’s a good idea to drink a nurse
by an ‘ally’ pretending to be a demon with a heart of gold (rather, Crowley makes no pretense about what he is)
would be unlikely to sleep with Crowley and follow him in a way that will only exacerbate the problems Dean is having (depression, suicidal ideation, lacking faith in his self-worth, which are different from the problems Sam has, aka, different diagnosis)

Maybe it seems the same to Sam (or it felt the same in that moment because he badly wanted Dean not to go with that guy and listen to him). But the context is very different to me.

It would also be slightly more similar to the situation if Sam had argued with Dean about it more vehemently due to determination that Crowley was going to fuck them, and then Dean choked him. In the end, they did get the lead, neither of them were pwned irreparably (despite Kripke’s new fetish for whumped!Dean), and Sam got to kill the demon that killed Jess.

Still, I would have preferred the conversation be along the lines of:
Sam: Gasp! Demon! Rage!
Dean: You trust ME, right?
Sam: POUT.

Because from Sam’s pov last season, he wanted Dean to trust his judgment, and two episodes ago, Sam said that he did trust Dean. So I can only assume that the reason Sam didn’t put up more of a fuss was because he actually does trust Dean’s judgment not to go too far, and on a logical level, both brothers know Crowley didn’t give them the Colt to set them up because that would be a stupid plan. If Sam wants his position as an adult respected and validated, then occasionally, he needs to respect and validate Dean’s plans too, and I think eventually that happened through the course of the episode and is the matter of import (Cas!) when it comes to this tension between them. I’m glad Dean was able to respect Sam enough to bring Brady back there instead of take the guy off somewhere else to interrogate the way Crowley wanted, under the assumption that Sam can’t handle the case like a big boy and deal with vengeance afterward.

And Sam did handle it.

(However, if this is a larger ploy on Crowley’s part and not a Save My Skin campaign, then it’s being done a lot better than last season, cause I’m fooled. They did get the lowdown on Pesty and Brady delivered right into Sam’s hands, though. Both pluses for the short term.)

I have other thoughts that may appear in fic.

2. I’m hoping killing Jessica’s killer will give Sam some of the closure he needs, as it logically should. But I don’t know if they want to drop the Rage! plotline this soon.

Also WHERE IS CASTIEL??


It’s really hard to believe that we only have two episodes left. :/

Also, it occurred to me that Dean is turning thirty 31 this year.